On one hand IRCTC is launching various initiatives to make it easier for consumers to book train tickets online and on the other hand they are coming up with rules that will make life difficult for consumers.

According to a Cleartrip post published couple of days back, it has now become mandatory for for users to have a IRCTC registration even if they are booking through 3rd party online train ticket booking websites.

Millions of users (including myself) book train tickets from Cleartrip, MMT and others just ensure a better experience and less chances of failed transactions. The IRCTC booking site is not only complex and slow, but they sometimes have a fail ratio of nearly 1 in every 3 transactions. Most users pay extra amount on 3rd party sites for smooth transactions.

But with this mandate coming from IRCTC, it will increase the percentage of failed transactions even on third party sites. These sites will now have to do deep integration with IRCTC database. The users will have to give their IRCTC login details on the booking website, and probably the OTA will have to populate the passenger details in IRCTC database. If for some reason, IRCTC is choked or down, users will not be able to book tickets.

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin and Facebook.Arun’s Google+ Profile